Tuesday, May 22, 2012

always be prepared

Before I had Violet the phrase witching hour evoked images of cheesy horror movies, or maybe a certain Roald Dalh novel. I wish! Bring on the fake blood and witch conventions, I can handle them. What I can't handle is the horror of the five o'clock hour when Violet's blood sugar is plummeting and my blood pressure is skyrocketing -- not a good combination. Last week I got lots of great advice about how to avoid pre-dinner meltdowns and tantrums (let alone addressing Violet's behaviour). Smoothies came highly recommended and since we had a fridge full of fruit and a plan to head out of town, the timing seemed right.

My friend recommended this recipe she found online. Now this is a healthy smoothie my friends-- just fruits and veg (and a little ground flax for good measure). It was really yummy, but I made the cardinal mistake of telling Jeffrey that it contained spinach. He just couldn't get over it. You honestly cannot taste the greens, you can't even see them for that matter, but he knew they were there and he couldn't cope. He thought it had a "spinach aftertaste". I'll be doing blind taste tests in the near future to test this hypothesis (watch your glass Pond). Needless to say I drank a lot of smoothie that day.

Despite my husband's lacklustre response, I don't consider the endeavour a total waste of time. Violet doesn't have the same aversion to drinking leafy greens that Jeff does so she was happy to have a small smoothie, better than a day's worth of sodium packed into a fish the size of a thumbnail I suppose. Even if I am the only one who really gets into the whole smoothie thing, I think I'll still try to make them. Hey, a smoothie is a better snack than three blue Quality Street chocolates leftover from Christmas -- you know the coconut ones no one eats until they are really hungry after work in May (a recent personal low).